Prayer For Graduation Day
Good and loving God-We thank you for the completion of another academic year, and for giving us the opportunity,short though it may have been, to play a part in the lives of our students and our new graduates. We are grateful for your guidance and love as we shared in this important work. Please bless and guide our graduates as they reach this end, and as they chart new beginnings.May what they have learned by being here with us allow them to truly be women and men for others. May what we have learned from them enable us to be the same. Please help them to use all that they have learned here to make the world a better place to serve others in true solidarity and kinship to seek ways to help the poor, the marginalized, and those who are suffering and to always seek the greater good. We know that some of them will experience pain and hardship, and we know that some of them already have, and we ask you to grant them solace and strength. Finally, Father, we thank you for giving us the opportunity to build our community with theseyoung men and women while they are here. Though they are leaving our campus, we knowthat they will always be with us as part of the Xavier family, and we ask that the bonds that have been created here remain strong despite any distance. We ask all of this in your name, and in the name of your Son. Amen.
Dear God, we pray that our children would be strong and courageous, believing that you have called them and are always with them. We ask that they would be bold to stand for what is right, even if it means standing alone. Equip them for every purpose and journey you have in store, so that they would live as mighty warriors in this life for your purposes. We pray that when they encounter various struggles and difficult times, when they experience loss and things don't go their way, that you would teach them greater perseverance through it all. Build deeper character, stronger faith, and use any hardship in their lives for ultimate good, turning it around for blessing instead. We ask for your powerful boldness and courage to face every challenge set before them with the confidence and peace that can only come from your spirit. Raise up greatness within their lives, greatness in this generation. May they be willing to stand strong and true, passionate for you, believing that you have designed them for purpose and good works, which you have planned and prepared in advance for them to do.
Dear God, we pray that you would surround our children with godly friends and relationships, both now and in the future. Guard them from those with wrong motives and harmful influences. We pray for their future spouse, if you lead them to marry someday, that you would be at work in their lives in powerful ways even now. We ask that you would give them kind and compassionate hearts, that they would see the needs of those around them and extend love and goodness. Help them to offer your forgiveness and grace to others, knowing how very much we also need it for ourselves. Give them the wisdom to look beyond outward appearances to the heart within. We pray that you would surround them with friends and leaders who would challenge them to press closer to you.
Dear God, we ask for your Holy Spirit to cover our children in your great peace and security. We pray that their thoughts would not be drawn to worry and fear, but instead by filled with the strength and confidence of your power every day. Help them to believe without question that you are surely with them, in whatever they may face, that they are never alone. Help them to know that you are mighty within them. We pray that you would plant deep inside their hearts a sense of overflowing gratitude, that they would be free from the love of money, and would walk in the freedom of contentment with an amazing spirit of giving to others. We pray that out of their lives would flow service, love, generosity, and compassion in a world that desperately needs to see your goodness in action. And when fear and anxiety battle against them, we pray that your words of truth will seal them in like a shield, giving them strength, and guarding their hearts and minds in your powerful peace.
"God, today is like any other. The sun rises. The winds blow. Rain falls. Rain does not fall. People are born. They laugh. They cry. They dance. They die. Today "chronos" time is as it has been since You gave it beginning, and will be as it is until you bring things to an end. Today is like any other.
Today is also fresh and new, and like no other day. Today is a "kairos" moment of opportunity that has come and will pass in a moment. Today is a passage from one epoch to another. Today is a gift from you. Grant grace to see it and seize it.
Today is a graduation, a passage, a completion, an inauguration. Today we pray for all those who have met the challenge and kept the faith to the commitments of their studies. Now they have a new "kairos" before them. We first offer thanks for the success of their journey. We thank for you granting them focus and direction and then strength and endurance. You created the knowledge and understanding they have mastered. You have created the curiosity and capacity for determination that led them in pursuit. All these good things came from you. Thank you.
Today we also pray for tomorrow. This graduation opens another door to another time. As you have led in the past, lead now into the future. Give them focus and clarity and a calling from you to understand their purpose and the courage to respond and step toward that purpose.
We pray in the words of scripture: 'Bless them indeed. Expand their territory. Let your hand be with them. Keep them evil, that they will not cause or experience pain.'
Today, we bless our graduates"
Dear God, we ask that you help our children to walk in your wisdom and grace. We pray for spiritual eyes and discernment in all things. Help them to be wise leaders and influencers in this generation, not conformed to the world, but transformed by your power. We ask that you would equip them with all that they need to make a difference for your purposes. Help them to live as salt and light in a dark world that so desperately needs to know your truth. We ask for your power to help them to walk continually in honesty and integrity. Build within them deep godliness, that they would be more concerned about their character than their reputation. We pray that they would seek to bring honor to You throughout their lives, that they would have a vision and heart for the world. Extend their boundaries and give them incredible influence with people and nations. Make their hearts and spirits open to every plan and purpose you have for them, and to be willing to boldly go wherever You call.
Let us unite our hearts in prayer
and entrust to the hands of the Lord
those who will be graduated tomorrow.
May God who began this good work in you
carry it through to completion,
enabling you to use your talents to the fullest.
May God give you the grace to make wise choices
and to be faithful to your commitments,
always confident in the support of those who love you.
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers,
half-truths, and superficial relationships,
so that you will live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression, and exploitation of people,
so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who
suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war,
so that you will reach out your hand
to comfort them and change their pain into joy.
May God bless you with the foolishness to think
that you can make a difference in the world,
so that you will do the things
which others tell you cannot be done.
May your integrity be a gift to the world
and may the Spirit of God be with you always.
As we prepare to watch the graduate walk across the stage to
receive a diploma, we want to take a moment to thank You for keeping
him/her safe and guiding him/her to this point.
Lord, touch him/her now with wisdom to be able to handle the next stage
of his/her life in a way that will be pleasing to You, and that will set
him/her on a path of living a life that will be a blessing to others.
Amen